TORONTO - Tablet ownership nearly tripled in Canada last year and will continue to surge in 2012, according to a report by the Media Technology Monitor.

Among anglophones, tablet ownership was at about 11 per cent last fall, up from four per cent in 2010, according to the report, based on surveys of 4,000 anglophones and 4,000 francophones late last year.

Francophone tablet ownership was at six per cent last fall, compared to two per cent in 2010.

MTM expects the pace of tablet purchasing will slow somewhat this year, with ownership going from 10 per cent among all Canadians in 2011 to about 17 per cent in the months ahead.

The report suggests about 72 per cent of all tablets owned by anglophones last year were iPads, but doesn't break down the other 28 per cent.

Last week, Apple reported it sold 15.4 million iPads in the fourth quarter, which included the holiday shopping season.

When it comes to watching TV on tablets, the number of viewers was still small. Among francophones, only two per cent of all respondents said they had watched TV on a tablet in the past month, compared to three per cent of the anglophones surveyed.

But the report notes the numbers are tiny because tablets still aren't found in most homes. The three per cent of anglophones who said they watched TV on a tablet represented about a quarter of all the anglophone tablet owners surveyed.

The percentages were slightly higher for those who reported watching TV on mobile phones, figures which have doubled annually among anglophones since 2009. Four per cent of anglophones watched TV on their smartphone in 2011, compared to two per cent in 2010, and one per cent in 2009.

In terms of watching TV online in general, 20 per cent of anglophones said they viewed a full-length TV episode online in the past month, compared to 13 per cent the previous year.

But the report suggests there are still very few Canadians who have given up on conventional TV entirely in favour of watching content online.

Only four per cent of the anglophones surveyed last fall said they only watch online content, compared to three per cent in 2010. Among francophones, the percentage was two per cent in 2010 and stayed steady last year.